Monday, October 31, 2016

Life with Ryder just gets more and more fun the older he gets. He actually semi-understood the concept of costumes and trick-or-treating this year, and it was so fun to watch his delight!

He dressed up as a firefighter, just like Daddy... shocking, I know.

The day before Halloween, we went down to the fire station to visit Stew so that Ryder could hang out with some real firefighters, as well as carve pumpkins and eat cupcakes with the other kids.

He loves "driving" the truck.

And checking out all the equipment.

But mostly he just loves his Daddy, and we are so proud of him!

Stew actually had Halloween proper off work this year, so we were able to go trick-or-treating for the first time as a family.

Ryder was a little apprehensive at first, but he got the hang of it pretty quickly.

Especially when he realized that his reward for being brave and knocking on the door was CANDY.

He took home a ridiculous haul, and even with Stew's help I have no idea how we're ever going to consume it all.

Unfortunately, I made a mistake and did not choose to just leave a big bowl of candy on our porch for the trick-or-treaters who came by while we were gone. And we ended up being out a little later than planned (even though we left pretty early with all the other "little kids" in the neighborhood). So by the time we got home, it had started to rain, and we didn't get near the amount of trick-or-treaters that we had planned for, leaving us with even MORE extra candy.

Let's be realistic though... Stew and Ryder don't really mind.

Overall I'd say it was a super fun and successful holiday for our family.

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Poor Stew came down with a nasty virus that knocked him completely out of commission. Of course it wasn't too long afterward that Ryder followed, so that left me taking care of both of my boys while they tried to rest up and recover.

Then poor Ryder took a turn for the worst, and unfortunately (curses to the universe!) ended up with croup again.

Unfortunately, Ryder is part of a small percentage of children for whom croup can be extremely severe, and even life-threatening. Luckily, because of what happened last time, our doctors took the situation incredibly seriously. Ryder was seen at the pediatrician's office almost immediately after we noticed the tell-tale wheezing, and he was started on rounds of steroids every 48 hours to make sure that his airway remained clear. In the meantime, we tried to keep him comfortable and kept a close watch for some tell-tale signs that meant we were to immediately take him to the emergency room.

Poor Buddy.

Thankfully, it seems that Ryder's anatomy has matured enough in the past year so that he was able to fight off the infection on his own, without the help of any extreme medical measures. Now we just have to hope that this doesn't become an annual occurrence...

Oh, and in the meantime, our practically brand new KitchenAid refrigerator stopped working.

We threw out what was several hundred dollars worth of spoiled food, and Stew began the tedious process of arguing with the company over whether or not the problem was covered under warranty.

Worst. Customer. Service. Ever.

After almost a month of arguing, several dozen phone calls, and one botched repair job, we finally have a working refrigerator again. But let me tell you...

We will never, ever buy another KitchenAid appliance again.

So that's all been pretty fun.

But for the moment everyone is happy and healthy again, and as the holiday season approaches, we're looking forward to having some fun and making some memories.